What High Street Brands are Doing Their Bit for the Planet?

What High Street Brands are Doing their Bit for the Planet? By Voucher Shares

Your Christmas outfit may impress your friends and colleagues this Christmas and it will undoubtedly make you feel great but will it impress the planet? Not if you only wear it once and throw it into landfill but we know that don’t we? What about checking your wardrobe first and wearing an existing item of clothing? Accessorising can make you feel just as good as wearing new outfit? Maybe buy some new jewellery, shoes, add a pop of colour through colourful tights or a new pashmina will make you feel just as good if not better than a new dress and you will get more wear out of these everyday items. And there’s no reason why you can’t shop with your favourite brands.

Killer Christmas Dresses Add an Estimated 2.5M Items to UK Landfill

According to the research we carried out at Voucher Shares earlier this month, 78% of women will buy a new party dress every Christmas. 11% said these party dresses would end up in landfill.  the chances are if you do buy a Christmas outfit there’s a 51% say they will wear it once and 11%said it will end up being thrown away, that’s *2.5M dresses in landfill! In the UK over 300,000 tonnes of clothing ends up in landfill each year however most items can continue to be worn for many years!

Make Sustainable Fashion Choices to Impress the Planet this Christmas

So what can we all do? Well first and foremost recycle all of your clothes, take to the local charity shop of give to a local homeless shelter. And if you are in the market for a new dress this Christmas why not stick your old ones on eBay to save up for a new one which will last and is made out of man-made materials vs polyester? It will have a higher re-sale value too!

What are High Street Fashion Brands Doing to Support Sustainability, Ethical Trade and the Environment?  

Marks and Spencer Approach to Sustainable Fashion

From responsible sourcing to tackling ‘throwaway fashion’, Marks and Spencer have been taking steps to boost the sustainability of their business for over a decade and have recently launched a Shwapping program with Oxfam. This program has seen 30 million garments recycled and £21 million raised for people living in extreme poverty.

Clarks Approach to Sustainable Fashion

Clarks have been making leather shoes since 1825 and have done a lot for charities, supporting Unicef since 2012. They have recently launched Seven, a shoe constructed from unlined suede, the Seven doesn’t just use fewer components, it also uses minimal glue meaning fewer chemicals, while at least 20% of the rubber outsole is made from a unique recycled mixture of regrind and waste latex.

Plus 100% of the leather used in Clarks school shoe range comes from silver and gold medal rated tanneries. This means reduced energy and water consumption and waste production.

Bodens Approach to Sustainable Fashion

Boden lasts and lasts and I speak from experience here. My older boy always gets Boden clothes which he passes down to his younger brother, then passed down to friends 2 younger boys which equals more than 4 wears because I insist they are then given to charity to be worn again and again.

Boden make things exceptionally well, to last, buttons stay on, threads stay threaded, they wash well and don’t shrink! The clothes have a 365 day guarantee which is particularly good for boys clothes!

Joules Approach to Sustainable Fashion

Joules clothes are known for their high durability and quality, providing many years of use and often being passed-on or handed-down. This is particularly relevant when some reports suggest that nearly two-thirds of clothing created by the retail industry overall end up in incinerators or landfill within a year of being produced.

Dorothy Perkins Approach to Sustainable Fashion

Dorothy Perkins have launched a recycled coat range and some charity tees which promote the cause of Trees for Cities by being made of 100% organic cotton; a natural fibre grown without the use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides or Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), preserving bio-diversity in soil, and ultimately having a lower impact on the environment.

Miss Selfridge Approach to Sustainable Fashion

Miss Selfridge works with British Heart Foundation to encourage customers to recycle and donate their unwanted clothes, accessories and shoes.

Miss Selfridge are encouraging customers to donate anything they no longer wear, attach the label to the bag, and either drop it off at their local BHF shop or call and arrange for it to be collected. All items donated will be sold in one of the BHF’s shops throughout the UK to raise essential funds for life-saving research into heart and circulatory diseases which currently causes 1 in 4 female deaths in the UK.

How can I Help Support Sustainable Fashion?

It’s an important question but the answer is very simple. Shop from labels and collections that support sustainability. Voucher Shares have highlighted some examples of the ways within which high street brands are doing this through some of their collections of via setting up outlets to accommodate recycling of existing fashion items. That way you can fuel your love for new trends without supporting the production of damaging, unrecyclable materials. 

Other ways would be to adopt a charity shop habit and buy pre-loved clothing (a great way to snap up 'vintage' pieces without the price tag of some vintage stores). We have partnered with Oxfam, one of the charity shop leaders in Vintage fashion and Cancer Research

Most of the above brands are offering voucher codes, discounts and deals on sustainable fashion at the time of writing this so please click through to each brands page for more information on the latest offers and discounts. Or click here to see all of the brands we are working with.

*2.5M Estimation Calculation

This estimation is based on applying Voucher Shares independent research carried out in November, 2019 with UK population figures, as follows:
- 32 Million women in the UK

Voucher Shares research respondent data:

- 78 percent buy a new party dress every Christmas (applied as a percentage to UK population = 23,040,000 Million) 

- 11 percent will throw it away into UK landfill (applied as a percentage to UK population = 2,534,400)

 

Miranda Coombes, mother of 2, passionate about the environment,

keen horse rider, marathon runner and a business owner

More blogs from Miranda:

Voucher Shares Embraces Green Friday

Your Ethical Shopping Guide to Black Friday

What is the Scariest Thing About Halloween?

Schools Up! Entertain your Little Darlings with these Messy Play Ideas

 

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